After many years writing feature articles for national publications such as The New York Times, The L.A. Times, and Wired, as well as several nonfiction books for Penguin, Random House, and other publishers, I plunged into writing my first novel. I hope it's as fun to read as it was to write.
The idea for THE PURPLES came out of a long-ago family connection to the infamous Purple Gang, a wild group of Jewish rumrunners who ruled Detroit during Prohibition. (My connection is to the man who took them down.) I was intrigued by this gang: Why purple? Where did th more...